"and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." Shantih.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Day 5- July 4th (Austin to Ely, NV)

You can see the 4th of July crowds in the street
welcoming us to Eureka!The women above
show what they were doing when we got there.This is the 32 oz. beer drinking contest, won in 18 seconds.We also “caught” the spouse egg throwing
event.Several spouses were too drunk to
catch a balloon, much less a raw egg...But I’m getting ahead of my story.

Dawn in Austin was crisp.I got up early to check out the town, all
towns even ghost towns, look better at dawn. I wondered if all the empty houses
were $1 like Detroit.I didn’t find a
newspaper or anything open so returned to the hotel and fired up the camp stove to boil water
for the coffee press.I think I like the
percolator better even though it obliterates a lot of the taste.It ADDS smell and helps wake the
sleepy heads. Ralph and teenagers are slow starters. I preferred riding from 8-10a when it was cooler than at 2-4p when it was "warmer". Starting the ride at 6800’
in the cool of the day does not prepare you for the valley floor at 4500’ in
the late morning.I believe today we had
the highest daily water consumption on the trip, 2-100 oz Camelbacks and a plethora of gatorades and
waters passed out from the car.Maybe
300 fluid ounces?Is that possible?20 lbs of water?Ralph brought his scale.He said it was useful to check for
dehydration.We sometimes were down 8
pounds at the end of the day.Does that
mean we evaporated 30 lbs of water?Consider that when trying to carry water for camping in the west, if you are not planning
to stop at populated waystations or campgrounds.

There’s a beautiful rhythm to riding in Nevada,
not disturbed by traffic.The dusty
valleys have straight interminable roads where you can see 15-20 miles and then
another ridge where you climb 1000-2000 feet, pick up some scruffy looking
bushes that are at least green, some great vistas, terrific downhills, and then
another slog across the valley floor.There are probably 12-15 ridges to traverse.The first this morning is Austin Summit.While we were posing at the top of the climb,
an antique car roadshow passed from the opposite direction celebrating the 4th,
blowing those funny sounding Model T horns.I think it likely that roads will be America’s distinguishing feature,
our claim to fame. Cathedrals in Europe that are not fully attended by
worshippers only visited by tourists could be their ‘excellence”.America is truly about the car... What
happens when gas is the equivalent of $10/gallon?Will economic activity slow so much that peak
oil is pushed out another decade before population and economic growth in China
and India start claiming a majority of world production?Will roads be like Costa Rica--so full of
potholes that it is quicker to ride a bicycle 80 miles than to take a
taxi? The bike is perfect
transportation.Better than a horse that
needs attention and makes a mess in a city and better than the car because it keeps
the human scale.The bicycle missed its
calling because it was invented at about the same time as the automobile and
plane and they were sexier.We’ve seen
the evolutionary impact of these transportation modalities--this century the
bike will find its place.OK.Maybe a motorbike for all you lazy people....

Hardy says the saddle on the Gitane is
painful.The beautiful (Greg Le Mond System-U)Gitane, restored and re-painted is relegated to a back up role.Both Daniel and Hardy take turns riding the Cannondale 6-13.I thought they would prefer riding in their
tennis shoes with toe clips so they could walk around but the three of us
all have size 10 feet and can wear the same shoes so we just pass the cycling
shoes around.

Scott Summit is a few miles after Austin summit,
a little lower, but the picture looking down the road shows how pretty Nevada
can be especially in the early morning. Eureka is in party mode when we
arrive.We rolled in on US-50 and there
is so little traffic they had set up tables on the road for prizes and local
community announcements.All the
activities in downtown Eureka were actually in the middle of a US highway!Approx 60 couples participated in the egg
throwing contest.Lined up on the
centerline of the highway, spouses take turns throwing an egg back and forth
while taking a step back each time.It
did not take long to eliminate most of the town.Under alcohol impairment, ten yards is a
pretty satisfactory throw.The burgers
smelled good but we unaccountably decided to go inside (A/C perhaps?) and have
Chinese food.Maybe it was the Grand
Opening sign.....There was a large
Mexican family with a crying baby and that wasn’t the worst part of the
experience.Slow service and really bad
food.I did not realize Chinese food
could be that bad.Perhaps the oil was
used for something else....It will not survive long even in a miniscule town
with limited culinary opportunities.Upon emerging into the afternoon heat we decided to give our bellies a
rest and take the auto transporter to the top of Antelope Summit, some 25 miles
away.We figured that would make the 68
mile ride to Ely a bit easier.It did.
Starting at the top of a climb does wonders for your psychology, no matter how
bad lunch was.The downhill run into Ely
( the largest population center since Carson City) was evocative of many
Western films buried in my subconscious.Strangers from the desert come sweeping into town, sizing it up,
checking out the saloon.We found our
Inn on the far side of town just in time to beat the thunderstorm.It didn’t look like it EVER rained in this
area but suddenly there it was gulleywashing.In 20 minutes the sun was back and in an hour it looked like it had
never rained..

Dinner was at the Nevada Hotel and Casino.I’m not much of a gambler.All the mechanical bells and whistles seem
like forced fun.The illusion of future
riches can be cultivated by many pretenses.Why not pretend God intends manna from heaven?A stranger struck by my
earnest, social do gooder conscience, just offers an award?There is no outwitting mathematics....Gambling, the
feeling of being lucky-omnipresent at best, transient at worst has no command
on reality.Hope is not a strategy
despite its pedigree as a fall back position.I liked the rattlesnake skin and branding iron decor on the cafe
wall.It seemed pleasantly dated.Rooms are only $45, substantially less than
modernity at the Motel 6.I detected no
obvious brothels, this being Nevada and all, and I hated to ask any questions
to inform my ignorance.Sometimes what
things look like is the only truth that will ever stick.

Gambling is big business.My personal interest in this extends only as
far as my daughters interest in going to Georgia Tech, a state school paid for
by gambling money for qualified GEORGIA residents.All others, $40,000 please.Since any B student in Georgia can go to
college for free it is obvious that people in Georgiathrow away an incredible sum of money.I’m actually proud of backward
Alabama on this issue.We may be one of
a small minority of states that don’t have a lottery, because most of the
voters think gambling is wrong.Imagine
that, principled opposition!The cynics
may claim the church, Creek Indians and charity bingo halls want the action to
themselves....

Here's a thought. One ant is an harbinger, but not
a problem.What one ant “thinks” is
inconsequential.How different are we?What is important is the cumulative effects
of numerous thoughts. Daniel Dennett and the meme.When one ant finds something—it is not long before they all are all over
it.My thoughts are the thoughts of a
single ant.Like a scout in search of
food, I am wandering around keeping my heart open, looking for meaning.Civilization is the big stage.The sum of social organization can be grand,
grander, or dysfunctional.I would like
to participate in a grand civilization.Perhaps we already have….this is as good as it gets.It is natural to want to do better and our
civilization is feeling a little threadbare these days.Perhaps it is the comparison with the
possible that makes the Real seem so tacky.What could we do had we but world enough and time?But we are saddled with the detritus of a
cheap, trivial, frivolous culture,Our
culture lacks nobility.And it lacks it
because freedom in the Now is more important to us than the sacrifices for the
future.We want it Now and we have got
liberty now but using liberty for trivial ends dissipates it and we are now
busy pissing our heritage away.What of
excellence?What of nobility?No ends are worth the cost—party on.

Is a Grand Civilization or a return to the Garden of Eden a
better human goal?Perhaps maximizing
individual human freedom would be better.What is each individual capable ofOR with sacrifice, what can all people do together?Do we have a clear enough idea of what
mankind is capable of or do we need more time? Is our modern interest in dinosaurs a
morbid fascination witha 150 million
year failed experiment?Is it our time
for the Second Coming?Perhaps with the
invention of nuclear weapons and the inability to get along we are headed to
the evolutionary graveyard as well.

I imagine God as fractured into his
creation.He cannot escape it or
transcend it.He has the Sisyphean task
of re-becoming using the Reality he has become.Like uranium, capable of critical mass when
re-assembled.Or like a strong spiritual
magnet, attracting to himself,all
spirit “matter” until he is re-constituted.Or like a black hole that consumes the universe, turningall that is, “inside out”, thereby re-rolling
the dice of the Laws of Nature to discover again what is possible.Does love disappear without people?Does virtue have a home planet?How small can excellence be? How large is
perfection?If my heart yearns—I cannot
help but commune with God…..

I had meant to blast God but surely he is
blameless.It is our fault—on that the
religious and the secular can agree.Religion distracts us from many sorts of truth and then paradoxically
points us toward other truths.We build
a dream castle of Heaven so we can be nice to our fellow men.We imagine where we want to live and make the
surety of Death the portal to get there.Why be altruistic?How
often?Should we ever be cruel? No? Even
if an illusion demands it?It’s not that
God doesn’t care—he’s beyond caring.The
point is—what’s possible?Reality is a
judgment on the Possible.